This invention relates to an apparatus for drying photo-sensitive-material, and more particularly, to an apparatus for drying photo-sensitive material with which, after a photo-sensitive material such as silver halide photo-sensitive material (hereinafter called as photo-sensitive material) is developed and fixed with a wet method, the photo-sensitive material is dried.
A conventional apparatus for drying photo-sensitive material (hereinafter called as drying apparatus) includes, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a transfer path 31 having a curved lower turn section 31a, a supply means 32 for supplying hot air provided outside the lower turn section 31a, and a suction duct 33 for sucking the hot air provided inside the lower turn section 31a. A drum-shaped lower roller 34 is rotatably arranged inside the lower turn section 31a.
The lower roller 34 consists of a short column 34a on which outer circumference is bonded a foamed silicone layer 34c, and a plurality of disks 34b provided on the both sides of the column 34a with a suitable interval. The disk 34b is made of polyacetal (polyoxymethylene) and the like. Moreover, the short column 34a and disk 34b are fixed to a common rotation shaft (not shown).
In this drying apparatus, the lower roller 34 is rotated by using a motor and the like to transfer a photo-sensitive material 35. Moreover, the direction of the front side and rear side of the photo-sensitive material 35 is determined so that the surface of the emulsion of the photo-sensitive material faces to the outside of the lower turn section 31a. Furthermore, the hot air supplied from the supply means 32 is blown towards the outside of the photo-sensitive material 35 (emulsion surface) to dry the photo-sensitive material 35. The hot air blown towards the outside of the photo-sensitive material 35 is sucked into the suction duct 33 through the gap between adjacent two disks 34b of the lower roller 34, thereby allowing the photo-sensitive material 35 to be sucked to the lower roller 34.
Especially, the center portion of the photo-sensitive material 35 contacts with the foamed silicone layer 34c on the outer circumferential surface of the short column 34a so that it is possible to transfer the photo-sensitive material 35 without causing failure such as slippage.
However, in the above-mentioned drying apparatus, the photo-sensitive material 35 passing through the lower roller 34 is apt to be dried easily at the part contacting with the outer circumferential surface of the short column to 34a or disk 34b because of easy heat transmission. On the other hand, the photo-sensitive material is apt not to be dried easily at the part other than that, namely, at the part passing through the gap between the adjacent two disks 34b. Moreover, there exist two kinds of materials, i.e. the foamed silicon layer 34c and POM (polyacetals) on the contacting surface with the photo-sensitive material so that the degree of drying varies with the difference of the material. Therefore, the degree of drying of the photo-sensitive material after being dried is not uniform at any position, thereby producing stripe-shaped drying irregularity. Drying irregularity reduces the quality of the picture print which would be finally obtained.
The present invention is made to solve the above problems, and accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a drying apparatus capable of preventing the generation of drying irregularity of the photo-sensitive material while maintaining easy transfer characteristics.